Tuesday, June 2, 2015

The size of Indonesia, the fourth largest country in Asia, is an obstacle to child labor eradication efforts as the practice is more common in rural areas, says an UN official.

“Things are happening in rural areas, while there are 34 provinces in Indonesia. We have to make sure the message [on child labor eradication] trickles down to the village level,” the International Labor Organization (ILO) officer-in-charge in Indonesia, Michiko Miyamoto, said at the Manpower Ministry in South Jakarta on Monday.

Miyamoto was speaking at an event to launch June as the month of child labor eradication at the ministry.

Manpower Ministry data shows that among the 4.1 million child workers in Indonesia, approximately 2 million of them work in rural areas, compared to 386,000 children who work in cities.

Miyamoto also said that regular discussions with the children’s families, companies and other workers in all areas of Indonesia were important as they needed to understand the impact of child labor in Indonesia.

The Manpower Ministry recently announced a plan to fully eradicate child labor by 2020, along with a target to pull out 16,000 children workers from the workplace all over Indonesia this year.